Templates

A template is an organization-level document that you fill in many times. Examples: a W-9, an onboarding packet, a claim form. Templates are persistent and have no TTL. CloudRaker never parses or indexes them. Fill references a template as template: { "id": "…" }.

Templates are a different noun from files by design. Files are the inputs a run reads. A file that a run creates is subject to a TTL. Templates are curated assets that live until you delete them.

Add a template

There are two shapes, the same as files. Send url, or send name + mimeType for a presigned upload.

$
curl -X POST https://api.cloudraker.com/v1/templates \
>
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDRAKER_API_KEY" \
>
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>
  -d '{ "url": "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf", "name": "w9-template.pdf" }'

1
{
2
  "object": "template",
3
  "id": "23e0a865-0be9-45b1-a491-f1b6bd58a31a",
4
  "name": "w9-template.pdf",
5
  "mimeType": "application/pdf",
6
  "kind": "pdf-form",
7
  "status": "uploading",
8
  "createdAt": "2026-07-25T18:01:28.026Z"
9
}

status moves from uploading to ready. CloudRaker does not parse templates, so a template reaches ready when the bytes land. This usually takes seconds.

Read, list, delete

$
# one template — includes a signed downloadUrl (~1 hour)
$
curl https://api.cloudraker.com/v1/templates/23e0a865-0be9-45b1-a491-f1b6bd58a31a \
>
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDRAKER_API_KEY"
$
$
# the library — picker rows, newest first, no download URLs
$
curl "https://api.cloudraker.com/v1/templates?limit=50" \
>
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDRAKER_API_KEY"
$
$
# remove one
$
curl -X DELETE https://api.cloudraker.com/v1/templates/23e0a865-0be9-45b1-a491-f1b6bd58a31a \
>
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDRAKER_API_KEY"

?limit caps the page (1–200, default 50). There is no cursor. The list is a single newest-first page. DELETE returns 204.

Inspect the fields

POST /v1/templates/:id/inspect returns the field inventory with page geometry, a values schema, and a content hash. CloudRaker detects fields when the PDF carries no fillable form. It also reads each field’s printed caption as its label. The first call can be slow. Later calls reuse the result. Templates over 32 MB answer 413 template_too_large.

Inspect is the configure-time step of fill. Curate the returned fields — labels, descriptions, ignore flags — and save them with the templateHash on a fill config. A fill run never re-inspects the form.

$
curl -X POST https://api.cloudraker.com/v1/templates/23e0a865-0be9-45b1-a491-f1b6bd58a31a/inspect \
>
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDRAKER_API_KEY"

1
{
2
  "fields": [
3
    {
4
      "name": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].f1_01[0]",
5
      "type": "text",
6
      "label": "1 Name of entity/individual. An entry is required.",
7
      "required": false,
8
      "page": 0,
9
      "box": { "x": 58.6, "y": 118.0, "width": 517.4, "height": 14 },
10
      "ignore": false
11
    }
12
    // …22 more on this form
13
  ],
14
  "schema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "values": { /* one property per field */ } }, "required": ["values"] },
15
  "pageBoxes": [{ "width": 611.976, "height": 791.968 }],
16
  "pageCount": 6,
17
  "detected": false,
18
  "templateHash": "9c56cc51b374c3ba189210d5b6d4bf57790d351c96c47c02190ecf1e430635ab"
19
}

Fill from a template

$
curl -X POST https://api.cloudraker.com/v1/fill \
>
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDRAKER_API_KEY" \
>
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>
  -d '{
>
    "template": { "id": "23e0a865-0be9-45b1-a491-f1b6bd58a31a" },
>
    "files": [{ "id": "a04d6597-4e34-4a99-94ea-964c289a4c68" }]
>
  }'

Fill also accepts template: { "url": "…" } for a one-off form. CloudRaker fetches that copy at run time and does not add it to your template library. Use a url for a form you will never see again. Use a saved {id} for a form you fill weekly.

Next steps